XP 32 and XP 64 Dual Boot

abels28abels28
edited October 2006 in Science & Tech
I have bought a new machine that has XP 64 pro already on it. It has 2 hard drives. I would like to load XP pro 32 on the other hard drive but apparently my CD is not bootable and when I put the CD in when i am in XP 64, the option to install Windows is dithered out. I did a little bit of digging and found out that this is saying that there is a newer version of Windows already installed. Is there a way to make the CD bootable or force windows to allow me to install anyway? Any help would be greatly appreciated because i don't really want to mess with the factory OS.

Comments

  • T-LAM-CT-LAM-C The Old-English "D"
    edited September 2006
    abel, I have not experienced your particular situation as all of my installs have been self-built. I do believe what you are seeing is the requirement to have the oldest version of windows installed before the newest, hence the error that "A Newer Version of Windows Is ALready Installed..." What you might trty is disconnecting the primary HD with WinXP x64 installed and the system SHOULD recognize the only remaining HD and allow the install of WinXP x86. You may need to make the secondary HD the master until the install completes and return it to slave! Also check to see if you have a back-up partition for your C: drive already on the second HD, you may need to do something with it before you install another version of windows on it.
  • T-LAM-CT-LAM-C The Old-English "D"
    edited September 2006
    abel, one more thing, your system being purchased as is, are you concerned about voiding any warrentee by opening your case and removing hardware?
  • abels28abels28
    edited September 2006
    I am not concerned with voiding the warranty. I like the solution but the only problem is that my CD still isn't bootable. So if i remove the hard-drive how do i force it to go into the windows setup?
  • T-LAM-CT-LAM-C The Old-English "D"
    edited September 2006
    abel, is your WindowsXP x86 CD purchased or downloaded? If purchased it should be bootable out of the box. Just make sure you set your boot order in the BIOS to CD Drive first. If downloaded I am not sure. Can you re-download and burn again?
  • abels28abels28
    edited September 2006
    I have actually pulled it down off a file share at work for a work computer and then burned it to a CD to put it on a computer that is not a part of the domain yet. The bios has the CDROM as the first boot device and i have tried it on several computers. Does it have something to do with the way i burned the CD.
  • Private_SnoballPrivate_Snoball Dover AFB, DE, USA
    edited October 2006
    abels28 wrote:
    I have actually pulled it down off a file share at work for a work computer and then burned it to a CD to put it on a computer that is not a part of the domain yet. The bios has the CDROM as the first boot device and i have tried it on several computers. Does it have something to do with the way i burned the CD.


    Possibly it does. How did you burn the CD? Were the components of the file a single .iso file or were they a ton of file? If it was an .iso then you need to burn an image of the file. There is some free image burning software out there, but I haven't the links handy sorry. Alcohol 120% is a nice piece of software and the trial version would give you exactly what you need.
  • T-LAM-CT-LAM-C The Old-English "D"
    edited October 2006
    Abel, PS is correct, IMGBurn is good also and free. NERO is wonderful but at cost. You may be ABLE to get a trial version for your needs right now!
  • abels28abels28
    edited October 2006
    Great ideas but no such luck on the iso file. It was just all the files off the disk is a directory. Any other ideas because i am flat out. I do have Nero and Easy CD Creator and am not opposed to aquiring Alcohol 120.
  • zero-counterzero-counter Linux Lubber San Antonio Member
    edited October 2006
    Let's start small first. I will tackle the non-bootable cd-rom. Do you happen to have a current version of Windows XP that is bootable?

    If so, then follow this guide:
    http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

    Your only concern is the bottom portion titled...Step 4: Extract a file needed to make your new CD bootable
    You can use the instructions/utilities there to make the current disk bootable. You will need to get the Microsoft Corporation.img file, which is what the disk uses to boot. I have not tried using the x64 .img file to see if it is the same as the x86 version, but it is only a boot loader afterall...

    If you don't have a bootable windows xp 32bit, as I stated earlier, you could try using the x64 .img file located on the root directory of the cd and follow the instructions from the link I provided.

    I have had success in using the .img file from an older variant to correct a non-bootable updated variant. 'Nuff said...
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